00:01Several European countries continue to battle with wildfires as they face
00:06sweltering temperatures and dry landscapes leading to the evacuation of
00:11thousands. In France's Lende region, a hundred more residents and holiday makers
00:16were forced to evacuate around the town of Luglon after a forest fire
00:22reignited early Saturday according to authorities. In Germany's Eiffel region,
00:28a major fire has caused at least 1,800 people to evacuate from the town of
00:33Hurtgenwald, where some 1,400 firefighters battled the blaze. Meanwhile, a major forest
00:40fire broke out on Friday on the Croatian island of Dugi Otok, where more than 100
00:46firefighters are battling the flames which are threatening many homes. In Spain,
00:51firefighters and emergency military unit members battled to contain a
00:55devastating wildfire overnight into Saturday in Spain's Huesca region. Thousands of
01:01hectares have already been destroyed and hundreds of people have been forced to
01:05evacuate as the fire threatened populated areas and two historic monasteries.
01:14The European Union pushed back at renewed trade pressure from the United States on Friday,
01:20who urged the EU to weaken its major Green Deal business rules. Washington's EU Ambassador Andrew
01:27Puzda urged the EU to change two major environmental and human rights laws to match last year's EU-US trade
01:35deal. In a post on Ex, Puzda wrote that the US would take any action necessary if the EU does
01:43not
01:43address rules it sees as unfair to US businesses. The EU laws cited by Puzda require large companies
01:51operating in the EU, including US firms, to report on their environmental and social impacts,
01:57including working conditions in their supply chains. In response, a European Commission spokesperson said
02:04the EU was very clear on the fact that its rules and right to set its own regulations are not
02:11up for
02:11negotiation. The EU has already dialed back the scope of both laws under pressure from businesses
02:17both inside and outside the block. Tehran has hit back at claims by US President Donald Trump that he
02:28would declare the Strait of Hormuz as US territory, asserting that the waterway would remain Iranian.
02:35Trump made the comment while speaking at a rally in New York. It was unclear how serious his statement
02:40was and US administration officials later briefed US media that he was joking.
02:46And after we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated,
02:52pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.
03:00Essentially, that's what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to.
03:07In response, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Garibabadi said that the Strait of Hormuz has been
03:14Iranian, is Iranian and will remain Iranian. Referring to whether the US or Iran are in charge of the
03:21strait, he claimed the waterway would only be closed and opened under Iran's command. Along with Iran's
03:28nuclear program, the strait has been one of the key sticking points in intermittent talks between
03:34Washington and Tehran.
03:39Italian police recovered paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse, worth almost 9 million euros that had
03:46been stolen from an Italian museum in March. The paintings were taken by thieves from the villa of
03:51the Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma in northern Italy. The heist had lasted under three minutes.
03:58Police said the investigation centered around a gang of nine Moldovan suspects. Five are accused of
04:04carrying out the theft. Video footage released by police showed two thieves wearing headlamps and
04:10with their faces covered entering the villa by breaking through a window. They headed straight into
04:15a room where the three paintings hung and took them off the wall, before heading back to the window and
04:20passing them through to an accomplice, waiting outside.
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